Let's face it, a lot of learning the guitar comes down to rote learning, memorizing information and loads of repetition. The good news is you can do a lot of this learning away from your instrument and I've found that when I do sit down with my guitar my practice sessions are a lot more efficient and effective. I'll give you the example that's specific to me and you'll see how simple the idea is and how it can be adapted to whatever you are currently working on.
First I picked three things that I wanted to be able to recall nice and quickly, in this case it was the degrees of the chromatic scale, the scale degrees in the E major shape on the neck and finally the names of each note on the neck. I then committed to spending just five minutes on each of these per day.
For the chromatic scale degrees I simply spent five minutes writing the number 1-12 in a random order then filling out their appropriate scale degree names.
To memorize the scale degrees I just got one of the many iPhone apps made for learning these and spent five minutes per day on the E Major scale.
Same thing for the note names, download an app and start with 5 minutes per day on one string, then two, then three and so on as your recall becomes easier.
It's really that simple. By finding just 5 minutes three times a day to learn away from the guitar I've found when I do sit down with the instrument the information is so much easier to recall and I'm getting more out of my practice sessions. I've also found it a lot less frustrating memorizing things this way. Rather than cramming as much as possible in at a time, I simply pace the learning, sticking to a five minute cap.
Remember that 3x5 minute sessions is 15 minutes, x7 days per week is 1hr 45 mins per week, over a month is 7 HOURS!!! It's this cumulative effect that I believe makes this so effective.
Hope this tip helps you just as it's helped me and I welcome any feedback on how people adapt this idea to suit their own learning.
Thanks.
